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DHL WP fight back to draw in Worcester

PUBLISHED: June 9, 2018


DHL Western Province showed great character to fight back in the second half and salvage a dramatic 24-24 draw with Boland in their SuperSport Rugby Challenge Cape derby in Worcester on Saturday.

Despite trailing 24-7 at half-time in a match dominated by the windy conditions, DHL Western Province scored all of the points in the second half, with two late tries from replacement Juarno Augustus seeing the match end in a stalemate.

The home side were playing with the wind in the first half and they struck first through flyhalf Elgar Watts who converted his own try to put them 7-0 up.

They followed that up with a try from wing Sergio Torrens before DHL Western Province got on the scoreboard with a try of their own.

A neat offload from lock Ernst van Rhyn found centre Dan du Plessis, who galloped away to score.

Boland responded with two more tries in the first half as they made the most of the wind at their backs, with both wings crossing for tries to take their lead out to 24-7 at half-time.

DHL Western Province started the second half with real intent and Augustus looked to have scored, but the TMO ruled that the ball had been knocked on.

Boland were reduced to 14 men when replacement Brandon Valentyn was shown a yellow card and DHL Western Province took advantage straight away as they won a tighthead scrum before Augustus carried a few defenders with him and got the offload away to wing Edwill van der Merwe to score in the corner.

The comeback continued as Augustus powered his way over for two unconverted tries in the last 10 minutes to salvage a dramatic draw.

The scorers:

For DHL WP:
Tries: Du Plessis, Van der Merwe, Augustus 2
Cons: Stander 2

For Boland:
Tries: Watts, Torrens 2, Mayeza
Cons: Watts 2

DHL Western Province: 15 Craig Barry, 14 Logan Basson, 13 Duncan Saal, 12 Dan du Plessis, 11 Edwill van der Merwe, 10 Josh Stander, 9 Justin Phillips, 8 Jaco Coetzee, 7 Chris Massyn, 6 Luke Stringer (captain), 5 Johan du Toit, 4 Ernst van Rhyn, 3 Neethling Fouche, 2 Scarra Ntubeni, 1 Michael Kumbirai.
Replacements: 16 Chad Solomon, 17 Carlu Sadie, 18 Brendon Esterhuizen, 19 Juarno Augustus, 20 Steph de Wit, 21 Herschel Jantjies, 22 Tristan Leyds.